The Countdown to 10,000 Goals

Tonight is the first competitive game of the 2011 MLS season, as RSL visits Columbus for the first leg of the CCL quarterfinal. That's also the first chance to add a couple of goals to the all time total, one that is rapidly nearing a huge milestone: 10,000 goals. Let the countdown begin! I'll be updating the progress every so often, like I did last year for the 1,500th player (Tyler Deric, remember?). By my count, MLS teams have scored 9,544 goals in all competitions from 1996-2010. Of that total, 7,997 were scored in MLS regular season action (which means the 8,000th will occur during the opening week, another milestone). Here's the list of goals by competition: Goals by Competition Goals Top Scorer MLS 7,997 Jaime Moreno - 133 Open Cup 596 Jaime Moreno - 13 Playoffs 531 Landon Donovan - 13 Champions League 215 Luciano Emilio - 9 Superliga 81 Landon Donovan - 4 OC Qualifying 73 John Wolyniec - 5 Canadian Champ. 15 Dwayne De Rosario - 4 Copa Merconorte 12 Roy Lassiter - 3 CCL Qualifying 8 8 players tied - 1 Giants Cup 8 3 players tied - 2 Copa Sudamerica 5 4 players tied - 1 Copa Interamericana 2 2 players tied - 1 Cup Winners Cup 2 Dante Washington - 2 Total 9,544 Jaime Moreno - 164 CCL qualifying refers to the handful of matches played in the late 1990's by Colorado and LA. If you add up the totals for each competition, you might notice that the sum is actually 9,545. That's due to the one match in 1999 which doubled as a regular season match and an Open Cup match (Colorado 1:0 Tampa Bay). You have no idea how much extra work that one match has caused me over the years (lol). I would estimate that the 10,000th goal will occur sometime around late June or early July. Goals by Team Goals Top Scorer DC 971 Jaime Moreno - 162 LA 916 Landon Donovan - 89 CLB 814 Brian McBride - 79 DAL 813 Jason Kreis - 99 CHI 760 Ante Razov - 95 KC 755 Preki - 81 NE 749 Taylor Twellman - 119 NY 747 Juan Pablo Angel - 62 COL 681 Paul Bravo - 46 SJ 653 Ronald Cerritos - 66 TB 335 Roy Lassiter - 44 HOU 294 Brian Ching - 57 RSL 279 Robbie Findley - 34 CHV 254 Ante Razov - 34 MIA 229 Diego Serna - 59 TOR 152 Dwayne De Rosario - 31 SEA 106 Fredy Montero - 25 PHI 36 Sebastien Le Toux - 15 DC is likely to become the first team to reach 1,000 goals this season. Further Reading Milestone MLS regular season goals